Most small children go through a phase when they're more interested in the box a toy came in than the actual toy. For Lauren Osoba, a graphic design student at Wichita State University, that fascination hasn't gone away.

“Growing up, I was drawn to graphic design and, by extension, package design,” Osoba says. “I would often save packaging or even leave products unopened to preserve it. So my love for package design should not have come as a surprise to me.”

Osoba says it wasn’t until college that she realized there is an entire industry dedicated to package design.

“At Wichita State, I had an ‘ah-ha’ moment when I realized people do this for a career,” she says.

The senior hopes to do the same, and she’s already finding success in her field, receiving national and international recognition for her packaging design.

Award-winning design

Most recently, Osoba won first place and a $3,000 scholarship in the 48-Hour Repack Student Packaging Competition, a national challenge that gives students only two days to complete a design from among four choices.

She created a concept for a baking supply company that included an innovative design for an everyday grocery item: a package of flour. Osoba’s package looks like a simple box, but when it opens it reveals three compartments containing pre-measured flour in increments of 1 cup, 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup, totaling 5 pounds. The individual paper that the packets are made from also contain plant seeds, making them biodegradable.

Osoba says the goal was to make an easy-to-use package that reduced mess and waste and made baking just a little more fun.

“At the grocery store we are often given two choices when purchasing flour: bulky, stark white packaging or a natural, brown paper,” she says. “Neither of these choices reflect the promise we are making to the consumer, that baking is fun and everyone deserves to treat themselves to yummy baked goods.”

After the contest, Osoba was invited to present her design to an audience of packaging design professionals at the NextPack 2015 conference in Atlanta. Although representatives from various manufacturing companies contacted Osoba to discuss manufacturing her design, she chose to continue focusing on her last two semesters enhancing the quality of her body of work.

“Several months from now, I hope to look at my past design projects and think they are not good,” she says. “That is the best feeling in the world, because it tells me I am improving as a graphic designer.”

In her time at Wichita State, Osoba has also gained real-world experience working in several internships – including LogoLounge, the Wichita Public Library and WSU Student Health Services.

“The graphic design program at Wichita State University is unique because we are exposed to many types of graphic design,” she says. “This has allowed me to learn a wide variety of skills while discovering a passion for package design.”